ANDERSON, SOUTH CAROLINA – An Anderson woman has been accused of practicing nursing without a license.

The State Law Enforcement Division says Denise Lynn Lollis has been charged with practicing nursing without a license from 1985 to 2012.

Lollis worked for years at AnMed Health Medical Center. She also was a nursing instructor for Tri-County Technical College.

The warrant accuses her of providing counterfeit licensing documents to her employers.

The hospital issued a statement saying Lollis had worked at the hospital “on an as-needed basis.” The hospital alerted authorities when questions about Lollis’ license were raised earlier this year. The hospital says her employment at the hospital ended in May.

WASHINGTON, DC – A panel of three federal judges upheld a South Carolina law requiring voters to show photo identification, but delayed enforcement until next year, in a decision announced Wednesday, less than a month before this year’s presidential election.

In a unanimous ruling, the judges said there was no discriminatory intent behind the law, ruling that it would not diminish African-Americans’ voting rights because people who face a “reasonable impediment” to getting an acceptable photo ID can still vote if they sign an affidavit.

The judge declined to let the law take effect immediately, “given the short time left before the 2012 elections and given the numerous steps necessary to properly implement the law … and ensure that the law would not have discriminatory” effects.

South Carolina voters who now lack the proper photo ID are disproportionately African-American, so proper and smooth functioning of the law “would be vital to avoid unlawfully racially discriminatory effects,” according to the decision, written by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “There is too much of a risk to African-American voters for us to roll the dice,” he said.

South Carolina is one of 16 states, mostly in the South, where election laws are subject to Justice Department approval under the federal Voting Rights Act because of a history of discrimination. South Carolina’s was the first law to be refused federal OK in nearly 20 years, which led state officials to challenge that decision in federal court.

The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature pushed the law through last year despite heavy opposition from African-American lawmakers. GOP Gov. Nikki Haley signed it last December.

Voter ID laws and other restrictions on voting became priority issues in mostly Republican legislatures and for governors after the 2008 elections. Opponents have described them as responses to the record turnouts of minorities and other Democratic-leaning constituencies that helped put Barack Obama, the first African-American president, in the White House.

Such laws have become a critical issue in this year’s election because of the tight presidential race between Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Supporters have pitched these laws as necessary to deter voter fraud, although very few cases of impersonation have been found.

Officials from South Carolina could not cite a single case of such fraud during the trial, but they said the law would help enhance public confidence in the election system and prevent other types of fraud.

South Carolina’s law requires voters to show a driver’s license or other photo identification issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, or a passport, military photo identification or a voter registration card with a photo.

The other judges in the case were Colleen Kollar-Kotelly and John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court in Washington.

Kollar-Kotelly was appointed by President Bill Clinton. Bates and Kavanaugh were appointed by President George W. Bush.

YORK, SOUTH CAROLINA – Lamarcus Williamson wasn’t pleased with his 15-year prison sentence for robbery, drug and assault charges. WCNC-TV reports the 30-year-old punched his public defender last week after receiving the sentence from a York County judge.

And the video from the courtroom proves it.

“I’m still sore,” Hall told WCNC’s Rad Berky. “He hit me right above the teeth and right below the nose.”

Williamson received an additional six months for “contempt of court,” and Berky reports Williamson may also face extra charges for assault.

“It is clear your conduct is not governed by rational thought,” Judge William Nettles told Williamson in court, according to the Charlotte Observer.

The Observer also reports Hall had never experienced or witnessed anything like the punching incident in 25 years of experience.

CLOVER, SOUTH CAROLINA — Johnny Ramsey, the 79-year-old Korean War veteran who collected and sold junk to pay for medications for his ailing wife, said just minutes before court Thursday evening: “If I have to go to jail, I guess I am ready.”

An hour later, Ramsey left a Clover courtroom in shackles – sentenced to 30 days in the York County jail for not cleaning up his yard eight months after a judge ordered him to get rid of the junk.

Clover Town Judge Melvin Howell ruled after a contempt of court hearing Thursday that Ramsey had refused to comply with court orders to both clean up his property and pay a fine for contempt.

The sentence will be served on weekends, but it started immediately after court was finished Thursday night.

Clover Police officers handcuffed Ramsey – whose nephew is a sheriff’s deputy, whose son is in Afghanistan on his fourth deployment to war – and walked him outside the court building and put him in a police car.

Then a burly officer thumped on the trunk, and the police took Clover’s junk man to jail.

Ramsey will get out of jail late Sunday night.

He will be out all next week with a chance to clean up the junk and not go back next weekend.

Ramsey said nothing as he walked out of the building. He just held up his handcuffed hands after surrendering his wallet and cigarettes.

After court, Ramsey’s wife, who walks with a cane and requires several medications for illnesses, said “it is just not true” that Ramsey did not try to clean up the property.

“He did try, four or five loads of stuff went out of here,” Patty Ramsey said. “That was a lie. I’m mad.”

On Wednesday, a church group from Rock Hill put up a privacy fence around some of the property after reading in The Herald about Ramsey’s fight with the town. Judge Howell saw pictures of that fence Thursday, but it was too little and too late.

The case against Ramsey – following coverage in The Herald since his trial in January – brought support for Ramsey from all over the country.

Enough donations came in to pay the $500 fine handed down by Howell after he was found in contempt in August for not cleaning up the property to the town’s satisfaction.

“There’s a man sittin’ right yonder with the $500,” Ramsey told Howell Thursday after he had been sentenced to 30 days in jail, but Howell was not swayed.

“If you had just worked with this court sir,” Howell said, then he was cut off by Ramsey.

“I did, sir…”

Howell, a York County magistrate, then cut Ramsey off.

“No; I have to do what I have to do.”

And Ramsey was taken to jail.

Ramsey, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, once was convicted of burning a cross on the front lawn of the former police chief in York. He served time in prison before the conviction was overturned on appeal.

He has since maintained he took the fall for two other guys.

Ramsey and his wife live in a mobile home on Social Security and veterans benefits that total less than $900 a month. He had sold junk for most of the 20 years he has lived in Clover to keep the lights on, water running and pay for his wife’s medications.

He has claimed that the town was out to get him. Court testimony showed no neighbors ever complained – but a town code enforcement officer did. His trial lawyer in January called the town’s code enforcement “rogue.”

Before court Thursday, he told officers working security: “I got no problem with the ‘po-lice.’ It’s just the code enforcement man.”

“All we ever wanted was for him to clean up his property,” said Joe Funderburk, Clover’s code enforcement officer, after Ramsey was taken to jail. “It is sad that it had to come to this today.”

Ramsey’s court-appointed public defender, Toni Johnson, told the judge that many people had tried to help Ramsey, and that “a lot of work has been done to clean up the area.”

But Johnson said she “understood that Mr. Ramsey has not complied to the satisfaction of the court.”

Johnson asked Howell to accept the $500 fine rather than give jail time, or have Ramsey serve house arrest if he had to be detained.

“I ask for the mercy of the court,” Johnson said.

During the hearing, which lasted more than half an hour, Howell had police officers put up on a wall screen a timeline of events that led to Ramsey’s being in court Thursday.

The town advised Ramsey in February 2011 that the junk was a violation. Ramsey was cited four months later after not replying to a letter stating he was in violation of town law.

Ramsey asked for a jury trial and was found guilty in January. It was then that Howell gave Ramsey six months to clean up the property or face 30 days in jail.

“I gave you six long months, I waited patiently,” Howell said.

Howell ruled in August that Ramsey had not cleaned up his property, found him in contempt of court and gave him two weeks to pay the $500 fine or face jail time.

The town even offered to haul off the junk if it was carted to the curb, Howell said.

“I don’t want to send anybody to jail, but I do like people to follow orders,” Howell said. “All I wanted to see was that you were working diligently to clean up the mess. Again, I tried to keep you out of jail.”

Howell told Ramsey in court Thursday that he saw a recent television interview in which Ramsey said he would refuse to pay the fine – even if he had $500 or $20,000.

Ramsey, who has been the most honest defendant in the history of courtrooms, spoke right up in court Thursday and said, “Yes, I did say that.”

Up there on the wall screen at that point was the timeline that said, “10/4/12: Court appearance for Mr. Ramsey. To date no attempt has been made to comply with any orders.”

Howell made it clear in court that any other defendant who does not comply with a court order goes to jail.

The judge took the time to say that he realized that Ramsey takes care of his wife, that he knows how difficult it is to live on a fixed income, and that he respected Ramsey for his military service.

“I respect you right now, Mr. Ramsey,” Howell said.

Ramsey replied: “I got the five hunnert dollars.”

Howell responded in similar vernacular from the bench: “I gotta do what I gotta do.”

Ramsey, before court, had put his medications for chronic headaches in a plastic bag in his wife’s purse. His wife had the car keys in case she had to drive home. He had a pack of cigarettes and his wallet and his hope.

He asked for one last kiss from his wife, standing there with a cane.

Howell did what he believed he had to do after explaining for several minutes that Ramsey had refused to follow repeated court orders.

“Thirty days, served on weekends,” Howell said from the bench in a courtroom that was as silent as a church.

Then Johnny Ramsey was taken to jail, and Patty Ramsey went home to an empty mobile home.

WEST ASHLEY, SOUTH CAROLINA – Melissity Q. Hayes sat at the kitchen table in her West Ashley home and turned on the television to watch news reports about the nightmare she was still living.

Her mother had been shot dead by Hayes’ estranged husband, Ronald David Ratliff, who was on the run. She worried that she could be next.

Then, as she sat there, Ratliff shot twice from the attic, striking her in the neck before killing himself.

Hayes holds the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office partly responsible for what happened. She contends that the Sheriff’s Office, which was supposed to be protecting her from her estranged husband, could have prevented the shooting, according to court documents.

Hayes recently filed a suit alleging that the Sheriff’s Office was negligent while she was under its protective custody. She maintains that deputies knew Ratliff had problems with substance abuse, that he had been violent toward Hayes and her family, and that he was armed and had access to her home.

Despite that, the suit claims, the Sheriff’s Office did not staff enough deputies at Hayes’ home and did not take the correct steps to keep the fugitive away from her.

“Evidence will show the Sheriff’s Office took complete control of the situation and negligently performed their duties and as a result Melissity Hayes has a bullet in her spine,” said her attorney, David Marvel.

Sheriff’s Maj. Jim Brady called the episode a sad situation that occurred with a tragic and difficult ending. Brady referred all specific questions about the suit to the attorney representing the agency, Sandy Senn.

“The sheriff and his deputies spent much time and manpower trying to keep Mrs. Hayes safe, and they are understandably upset that their efforts to protect her weren’t enough,” Senn said.

Ratliff’s suicide was the end of a tumultuous relationship that went on between 1990 and 2011. The last straw was on Sept. 20, 2010, when Hayes went to a divorce attorney. Later that night, Ratliff threatened to kill her and the rest of her family.

He was arrested and taken to jail. A judge granted Hayes’ request for a restraining order, and he spent 119 days in jail. Ratliff was released on Jan. 18, 2011, after pleading guilty to assault and battery and receiving a sentence of time he had served.

Hayes’ parents traveled from their home in Florida to their daughter, in fear of Ratliff’s release, the suit’s documents stated. Four days later, Ratliff sneaked into the Debbenshire Road home and shot and killed his estranged mother-in-law, 65-year-old Linda Hayes, authorities said.

Ratliff also tried killing Hayes’ father, Richard Hayes, but the gun jammed and he ran off, the suit’s complaint stated.

While investigators searched for Ratliff, Hayes spent a few days in a secured location with a security detail. She was allowed to return to her home with deputies on Jan. 25, 2011. Meanwhile, investigators surrounded Ratliff’s white van, found abandoned on James Island.

After deputies searched the home and let her and her family inside, Ratliff shot Hayes from the attic, then fatally shot himself.

Ratliff had spent three days in that attic, according to the court documents. Buried under the attic insulation and armed with a gun, he waited for Hayes until he had the chance to shoot her, Sheriff’s Office authorities have said.

A security detail failed to search the attic before allowing Hayes and her family into the house, the suit alleges. Deputies had reason to believe he could be in the attic, according to Marvel.

Senn argued that “law enforcement officers cannot always prevent a determined and vengeful murderer.” She said an estranged husband is to blame. “But he is not here to defend the lawsuit,” Senn said.

Following the shooting, Sheriff Al Cannon was questioned about the handling of Hayes’ security detail. He said he felt all along that the Sheriff’s Office was making all the right moves.

“But it would be ludicrous for me to not be concerned about how this ultimately played out,” he had said.

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – Columbia Police officers say a woman arrested late Tuesday evening and after allegedly cutting two other women with a sharp object at the main branch of the Richland County Public Library will face additional charges after she lied about her identity.

CPD says 32-year-old Monique Tamahr Stroman has been charged of two counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. She’s also expected to be charged with providing false information to police after investigators said she lied to officers about her real name.

Investigators say Stroman got into an argument with the two victims before 7:00 p.m. inside the library on Assembly Street.

Police say after the argument, Stroman reached into her pocket and pulled out what investigators believe to be a box cutter or another similarly sharp object, and cut both victims in the face.

The victims were not seriously injured, but they were transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Stroman, who has no permanent address, was transported to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

NORTH CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA – After a two-month investigation, state law enforcement agents arrested a former North Charleston police officer this morning on a charge that he roughed up a man in his custody.

Kenneth Ford was fired by Police Chief Jon Zumalt on July 23, five days after a complaint about the incident was lodged against him.

He surrendered about 9:20 this morning at the Al Cannon Detention Center. He faces a charge of misconduct in office, according to a jail employee.

After posting bail, he was released about 12:30 this afternoon.

An arrest affidavit released this morning stated that Ford’s charge stemmed from an incident that started around 10:30 p.m. July 17. The account is based on statements from the victim and witnesses.

Ford “unlawfully detained” a man on Montague Avenue, then took him to a dark location, according to the document. He then “physically assaulted” the man and destroyed his personal property, the affidavit stated.

“This is what happens when you disrespect the police,” Ford told the man, according to the paperwork.

Around 1 a.m., Ford removed handcuffs from the man and told him to find his way home, according to the document. Ford then sent a text message to an officer who had followed him and told that officer to lie about what had happened, the affidavit stated.

During a hearing this morning, Magistrate Linda Lombard called those allegations “serious” and set Ford’s bail at $25,000.

Zumalt, the police chief, said his department acted swiftly to investigate the complaint and remove Ford from its ranks.

The victim filed a complaint with a police the night after the incident occurred, Zumalt said, and he was informed the following morning. The department immediately began investigating and formally interviewed the man on July 20, he said.

“Once that happened, I realized there was some legitimacy to what he was saying had occurred,” he said.

Zumalt said he then called SLED chief Mark Keel and asked him to have his agents investigate the case. Keel pledged to do so beginning July 23. Zumalt said his investigators wrapped up their internal probe over the weekend and he fired Ford on July 23.

“We take these things seriously,” Zumalt said. “As soon as it came to my attention, we began investigating the allegations and then we terminated the officer. It’s not like we sat on this at all.”

The North Charleston Police Department, however, had denied requests for the termination’s circumstances in spite of the S.C. Freedom of Information Act.

At the time, a department spokesman said the agency had no record of it, and a SLED spokeswoman said the state also did not have a complaint document.

Paperwork submitted by Zumalt to the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy stated only that the State Law Enforcement Division had opened an investigation — which started two days after the complaint — and that Ford was accused of abusing the man and being deceptive about it to the Police Department.

Ford was in his first year as a North Charleston police officer.

He resigned from the Mount Pleasant Police Department in October to take the new job, according to a training-history report acquired from the Criminal Justice Academy after a FOIA request.

Before joining Mount Pleasant’s police force in March 2009, he had served as a correctional officer at the Al Cannon Detention Center since September 2007.

The documents do not indicate any earlier disciplinary issues with Ford.